The Goals of The Timber Framing Campaign

The Goals of The Timber Framing Campaign Remain The Same:

• To promote and support the timber framing industry in Australia and maintain market share in volume and market position.
• To increase understanding of the environmental benefits and sustainability credentials of timber framing.
• To promote increased use of timber framing as the material of choice amongst builders.

Improved & Ongoing Tracking of Australian Timber Framing Consumption

In previous updates to our Funding Partners, we outlined some new methods of benchmarking timber framing consumption in Australia against building activity.

These new methods of tracking have now been fine-tuned by FWPA’s Statistics and Economics Manager, Erick Hansnata, to provide the update below.  Whilst this is a lag indicator, it will enable some scenario planning for future demand outlooks, and it certainly allows a national tracking indices of timber framing usage and therefore changes in this can highlight category competitors i.e. steel framing gains/ losses.

The tracking uses a 3-month lag, and the building activity tracker is now Dwelling Approvals, not Commencements.

The quarterly ratio below seems in line with averages for the past 8 years and has shown a consistent recovery in timber supply keeping up with demand since the COVID-19 peak of approvals in mid-2021

Taking a longer-term view below with annual ratio tracking, it appears there is a systemic decrease in the amount of timber being consumed in new dwellings this current decade compared to the period 2004-2008 which peaked at 18.2m3, and averaged at 16.3m3.  

The series now has three decades of history and shows how timber framing usage is not keeping up with the new dwellings market opportunity in Australia – the average for 2002-2010 being 14.5m3, for 2011-2019 being 13m3 and current 2020-2024 is at 12.4m3.

Also, from FWPA’s  Statistics and Economics program, is the new insightful report, More Houses Sooner.

Australia is experiencing a dwelling shortage, often described as a ‘housing crisis’, influenced by unmet demand over the past two decades.

FWPA’s More Houses Sooner report provides an in-depth analysis of these trends, outlining the scale of required housing development and the role of the forest      and wood products industry in meeting this demand.

Key Findings

• Australia’s population is projected to reach nearly 31 million by 2034, with household sizes declining to fewer than 2.4 people per household.
• To keep pace with demand, Australia will need approximately 2.48 million new dwellings by 2034—an average of 225,400 new homes per year.
• Achieving this level of construction will require greater efficiency in timber use, particularly in free-standing homes and mid-rise multi-residential developments (4-8 storeys).
• The demand for sawn structural timber is expected to exceed 2.5 million cubic meters per year by 2027, highlighting both supply challenges and opportunities for the forest and wood products sector.
• The report explores strategies to enhance housing affordability and supply, including prefabrication, factory-based manufacturing, and innovative timber solutions.

Digital Results

The WoodSolutions Renewable Timber Framing digital campaign has become a pivotal investment and transformed how we connect with builders, tradies and home building companies, including their C-Suite management who are increasingly focussed on ESG credentials in their businesses.

The Renewable Timber Framing digital marketing campaign is supported and subsidised by FWPA, as part of a monthly retainer with a digital agency for the WoodSolutions brand. Work has been delivered over and above what would normally be afforded at the rate that is currently being paid out of the campaign budget ($1,500 per month) to produce timber framing focussed content that engage a builder audience.

On average, the campaign is receiving up to 55 hours of digital marketing support by FWPA’s in-house marketing team and the digital agency per month, which is in addition to FWPA’s campaign sponsorship.

Key Highlights:

Social media – As part of the Timber Framing Campaign, we placed engaging social media posts to amplify timber’s message across key platforms such as Facebook and Insta.  Over the last 3 months, we’ve had 2714 views of the timber framing content on our WS Insta page.  These posts showcased timber’s sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and versatility, targeting builders and tradies.

The Timber Framing Campaign generated strong engagement, with over 2.6 million impressions from Carpentry Australia and an additional 260,000+ impressions from digital and social content. This activity drove approximately 3,600 clicks, contributing to 2,006 sessions on the Timber Framing website and a total of 10,552 tracked events. As a result, 171 new followers were added to the database, demonstrating effective audience growth and interaction.

Tradie Competition Success – Our sub campaign, “Timber Framing: Win Win” invited industry professionals to showcase their timber-framed projects, igniting enthusiasm for timber’s durability and environmental benefits. Winner to be announced soon! We now have 171 new database members or Timber Framing advocates to continue to engage with from this competition. 

Timber Framing Landing Page on WoodSolutions website has had almost 5000 visitors now since its launch and new users are almost 2,500.  Our most popular content is “12 reasons why more Australian designers, builders and homeowners choose timber framing”.  Content continues to evolve with new blog articles relating to current market issues and opportunities.  Once we have high profile cooperative promotional materials in place with key builders, we’ll be featuring these as timber framing case studies.

Our WoodSolutions’ builder database is now at 496 builders, carpenters and tradespeople and continues to grow with our campaign initiatives. 171 of these are new contacts on the database from the Timber Framing Win Win competition.  

The new CA member induction pack now also includes WoodSolutions Renewable Timber framing campaign collateral – exert below of content.  

Growing Relationship with Master Builders with Particular Focus on Queensland 

Whilst our campaign is designed to be national, our latest market intel shows the QLD market at the highest steel share of any state in Australia, estimated at 40% of new top 20 home builders in that state. Considering this, we’ve redirected $17.5k of our funds to focus on reaching the pro-timber builders in that state.

We are commencing a new paid advertising and sponsorship with Master Builders Queensland which includes a Top Builders Display Village luncheon in early May and a series of advertisements including featured advertorial in their publication.

One of the planned advertising placements is below.

Timber Queensland’s Residential Timber Framing Webinar 3rd April – Timber Framing’s Carbon Story 

With over 500 registrants nationally, this webinar was a wonderful showcase for timber framing with major sponsor AKD providing an insightful outline on structural grading and current technologies, providing a strong foundation for QA in the category. Other speakers included Tripti Singh, Director National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life (another FWPA funded initiative), on mould management which covered a solutions-based discussion, which was especially relevant given the recent flooding in SE QLD.  

It was an opportunity to communicate our campaign’s key message about the sustainability credentials of timber framing as part of the fight against climate change and reducing the construction sector’s heavy environmental footprint by giving preference to timber specification in all built environment projects.  

One of the key points of interest from the presentation to this audience was the fact that FWPA has calculated the time required for Australia’s plantations to grow enough structural timber for the average Australian house frame, being approximately 150 seconds. “When using timber, the average Australian house frame can be ‘grown’ in about two-and-a-half minutes” as a takeaway key message really resonated with webinar attendees.

Builder Recruitment: Top 100 Residential Building Companies Mailer to C-Suite Managers

Burbank Sales Team Session & Blog Article to come

We had a very successful morning running a training session with the Qld new home sales consultants’ team for Burbank Homes.  They requested assistance in answering some of their prospective new clients’ questions about “why don’t you use steel framing?”.  A big thank you to Kersten who coordinated this session after one of her members reached out to her for assistance.  

We can thank Truecore’s sponsorship of The Block TV series for the fact that consumers are paying more attention to what holds up their new homes but as research tells us the majority of consumers will trust their builders regarding the structural materials choice. So, we just needed to arm the Burbank sales team with all the reasons why timber is preferred by them.   

A resounding applause at the end of the session and follow up site tours are now underway.  In addition, the Burbank Sales Manager opened the door to Burbank’s national marketing manager who has expressed an interest in creating some website content on “why timber framing” and amplifying this content across their other mediums to inform their clients and support their frontline sales consultants who are getting the question “why not steel?”.

Builder recruitment remains a challenge with the big end of town and it’s hard to get doors open about “why timber framing”. Despite this, we are in the advanced stages of having 3 major builders recruited and using our campaign messages in a form that best suits their business, branding and client journeys.

What’s Coming Up

• GJ Gardner Bendigo Design Centre – timber framing display going ahead 
• Burbank Homes to publish pro-timber framing article on their website
• Customised cooperative promotional agreement with Hickinbotham Homes 
• MBQ Top 20 Display Village Builders – luncheon sponsorship and attendance 1st May
• Sydney Design Build Expo – 7-8^th May – attending as sustainability ambassador and visiting funding partner stands – Timberlink and Multinail with campaign collateral
• MBQ publications – paid advertising program to reach C-Suite level of Top 20 home builders in QLD where our biggest steel threat is 
• 30^th May – FY26 Voluntary funding commitment indications by sector and companies as per agreed process
• Carbon Calculator on the WoodSolutions website!

 We also have the opportunity to leverage our brand ambassador Adam Doville from FWPA’s consumer campaign The Ultimate Renewable™ which is now running as an ‘always-on’ digital campaign promoting the social, environmental and economic benefits of forest      and wood products year-round.

Having this multimedia consumer campaign running alongside our Renewable Timber Framing campaign efforts, amplifies the messages and bolsters the timber framing category in the market.     

Learn more about what’s happening in The Ultimate Renewable™ campaign.

We’d like to thank those companies that have supported us in the past, enabling this year’s campaign to be ongoing until June 2025.

Please reach out if you have further questions about the FY26 approach to ensure campaign continuity

Christine Briggs

WoodSolutions TIMBER FRAMING Campaign Manager
M: 0418 255 050
E: ChrisB_CultureBrand@outlook.com